<s>^-:Jl!!^'^r,:^ 


*     APR    2    1904      * 


Division 
Section 


The 

Hidden 
Years  at 
Nazareth 


The  Hidden 
Years  at  Nazareth 


By 

Rev.  G.  Campbell  Morgan 

Pastor  of  New  Court  Congregational  Church 
Tollington  Park,  London 


Author  ot 

Discipieship 


"New  York       Chicago      Torokto 

Fleming  H.  Revell  Company 

Publishers  of  Evangelical  Literature 


Copyright,  1898,  by 
Fleming  H.  Revell 
Company    . 


'*  Thou  art  My  beloved  Son,  in  whocn 
I  am  well  pleased***— Mark  i.  u. 

**  h  not  this  the  carpenter  ?  ** 

Mark  vi.  3. 


The  Hidden  Years 
at  Nazareth 

HE  soul's  first  vision  of 
Jesus  is  of  Him  as  the 
Saviour.  When  we  so  know 
Him,  He  becomes  to  us  the 
exemplar,  leaving  us  an  exam- 
ple, that  we  should  follow  in 
His  steps.  He  is  more  than  an 
example  in  any  ordinary  ac- 
ceptation of  that  term,  for  He 
not  only  reveals  to  us  the  pat- 
tern of  our  lives,  but  He  also 
brings  the  power  by  which  we 
7 


The  may  grow  up  into  Him  in  all 
Hidden 
Years  at  things,   and  so  reproduce   in 

actual  living  the  perfect  and 
wondrous  pattern  that  He 
shows.  But  we  must  clearly 
understand  that  we  never  get 
back  into  the  life  of  Jesus  save 
by  the  way  of  His  death.  His 
death  is  evermore  the  gate  of 
life  to  man  —  not  only  a  gate 
to  the  eternal  life  that  stretches 
beyond  this  place  and  time  of 
conflict,  but  the  gate  into  the 
eternal  life  which  we  live  to- 
day, if  we  are  living  in  direct 
and  positive  communion  with 
Himself.  Having  known  Him 
as  the  Saviour,  and  having 
found  our  way  into  the  realm 
8 


of  life  at  the  cross,  then  He  The 

Hidden 
becomes  our  example,  and  all  Years  at 

,        1 1     •     •       1  1     •  r    Nazaretii 

that  He  is  m  the  revelation  of 

the  fourfold  gospel  marks  His 

intention  for  His  people. 

Now,  beloved,  let  us  seek 
to  learn  the  purpose  of  Christ 
for  us  in  one  particular  de- 
partment of  life. 

It  is  not  given  to  every  man 
or  woman  to  serve  God  in 
public  places;  the  great  ma- 
jority must  live  their  lives  out- 
side any  prominent  sphere, 
and  as  part  of  a  very  small 
circle  of  relatives  and  acquain- 
tances. Men  will  not  hear 
even  the  names  of  the  great 
mass  of  the  people  who  are 
9 


The  living  their  life  throughout  the 
Hidden 
Years  at  world  to-day.    I  want  to  know 

^  ^^  what  there  is  in  the  life  of 
Jesus  that  helps  such  persons. 
We  are  accustomed  to  think 
of  Him  as  one  in  a  public  min- 
istry, as  the  man  of  the  mar- 
ket-place and  the  crowd,  the 
teacher  who  "  spake  as  never 
man  spake,"  the  healer  whose 
touch  brought  life  and  blessing 
to  hundreds,  the  man  who  re- 
buked sin  in  high  places  and 
spoke  words  of  infinitely 
sweet  pity  and  kindness  to 
the  child  and  the  young  dis- 
ciple; but  the  greater  part  of 
His  life  was  not  lived  in  those 
places  where  we  have  grown 

lO 


most  familiar  with  Him,  but  The 

Hidden 
in  quiet  seclusion,  where  the  Years  at 

J   Nazareth 
great    crowd    of    men    and 

women  will  always  live  in 
this  world.  Yet  how  little 
we  know  concerning  that 
period!  how  meager  is  the 
biblical  information!  I  do  not 
say  it  is  not  enough ;  I  believe 
it  is  enough;  but  in  the  mere 
matter  of  words,  how  small  it 
is!  I  have  the  story  of  His 
birth,  and  then  1  lose  sight  of 
Him  for  twelve  years.  Then 
I  see  Him  again,  going  out  to 
His  Jewish  confirmation,  be- 
coming the  son  of  the  law  in 
that  Jewish  congregation,  ask- 
ing questions  of  the  doctors, 
II 


The  and  answering  theirs.     Ah,  it 
Hidden 

Years  at  is  a  wonderful  glimpse,  a  glit- 
tering flash,  and  then  I  lose 
Him  again  for  eighteen  long 
years,  at  the  end  of  which  time 
He  comes  to  be  baptized  of 
John  in  Jordan,  and  begins  His 
public  ministry,  and  I  see  a 
few  rapid  pictures  of  miracles 
and  tears  and  love  and  sym- 
pathy, and  He  is  gone!  If 
you  will  write,  in  the  manner 
in  which  the  lives  of  the  men 
of  to-day  are  written,  the  story 
of  the  daily  life  of  Jesus,  how 
diminutive  and  meager  it  is! 
What  of  those  eighteen 
years?  Where  was  He?  What 
was  He  doing?    As  one  whom 

12 


He  has  ordained  to  preach  His  The 

Hidden 
gospel  in  this  public  ministry,  Years  at 

I  am  intensely  interested  in  the 
way  He  spoke  to  men  and 
acted  among  men  in  His  pub- 
lic years ;  but  the  majority  will 
feel  that  they  would  be  better 
served  by  a  revelation  of  how 
He  acted  amid  the  common- 
place surroundings  of  every- 
day life. 

Let  us,  then,  try  and  see 
Him  in  those  eighteen  hidden 
years.  The  two  verses  that  I 
have  read  are  the  only  two 
that  give  us  any  definite  or 
detailed  account  of  what  Jesus 
was  doing  from  the  time  He 
was  twelve  until  He  was  about 
13 


The  thirty.     Take  the  two  state- 
Hidden 
Years  at  ments  and  fix  them  on  your 

Nazareth        ...  _ 

minds  for  a  moment:  "Thou 

art  My  beloved  Son,  in  whom 
I  am  well  pleased."  "Is  not 
this  the  carpenter.? "  These 
two  passages  supply  the  story 
of  the  eighteen  years.  Jesus 
was  a  carpenter  pleasing  God. 
But  is  it  fair  to  put  them  to- 
gether like  that.?  I  think  you 
will  see  that  it  is.  Upon  what 
occasion  did  that  divine  voice 
speak?  On  the  occasion  of 
the  baptism.  Jesus  had  left 
behind  all  the  doings  of  those 
long  and  weary  years,  and  He 
was  just  at  the  dividing-line 
between  private  and  public 
»4 


life.     He  was  leaving  behind  The 

Hidden 

Him  the  unknown  years,  and  Years  at 

1        /-  r^azareth 

coming  out  mto  the  fierce 
light  that  beats  ever  upon  a 
public  teacher.  And  there,  at 
the  parting  of  the  ways,  God 
lit  up  all  the  years  that  had 
gone  with  the  sweet  words  of 
approval,  "  Thou  art  My  be- 
loved Son,  in  whom  I  am  well 
pleased."  It  could  not  have 
been  a  pronouncement  upon 
the  temptation  of  the  wilder- 
ness; that  was  as  yet  an  un- 
tried pathway.  It  could  not 
have  been  a  declaration  of  the 
divine  pleasure  with  Gethsem- 
ane's  garden  and  Calvary's 
cross;  they  were  still  to  be 
15 


The  reached.     No;    it  must  have 

Hidden 
Years  at  been  a  reference  to  the  past,  so 

that,  whatever  else  I  know,  or 
do  not  know,  about  the  hid- 
den years  of  the  life  of  Jesus, 
this  one  thing  is  certain,  that 
through  them  all  He  pleased 
God;  for  God  put  His  seal 
upon  them  when  they  were 
closing  behind  Him  and  the 
new  years  were  opening  be- 
fore Him,  saying:  "I  am  well 
pleased."  You  remember 
how,  after  that  pronounce- 
ment,. He  went  to  the  wilder- 
ness and  was  tempted,  and 
after  that  temptation  He  went 
to  Galilee,  in  the  power  of  the 
Spirit,  and  began  His  public 
i6 


ministry;   and  you  find  Him  The 

Hidden 
going  at  the  early  part  thereof  Years  at 

down  to  Nazareth,  the  place  ^^^^ 
where  He  has  been  brought 
up.  It  was  a  small  town,  a 
kind  of  hamlet  on  the  hillside, 
of  perhaps  three  thousand  in- 
habitants. 

This  young  man  comes  back 
to  His  boyhood's  home,  and 
every  one  knows  Him.  He 
goes  to  the  synagogue,  as 
was  His  custom,  on  the  Sab- 
bath day,  and  reads  out  of  the 
book,  and  then  He  talks  to  the 
assembled  people;  and  they 
look  at  Him,  and  listen,  won- 
der the  while  being  depicted 
on  their  faces.  Cannot  you 
17 


The  see    the    picture?— that    little 
Hidden 
Years  at  synagogue,    the    old    Jewish 

^^^  people,  the  keen  faces  looking 
at  the  speaker,  and  then  turn- 
ing to  each  other,  saying: 
"  Whence  hath  this  man  these 
things?  We  know  Him  per- 
fectly well;  He  is  the  carpen- 
ter." Yes;  they  know  Him. 
They  have  watched  Him  toil- 
ing day  after  day,  month 
after  month,  in  the  work- 
shop, bending  over  the  bench 
with  the  tools  of  His  craft  in 
His  hand.  They  cannot  ac- 
count for  Him  as  a  teacher 
because  they  did  not  account 
for  Him  as  a  toiler. 

Mark,  then,  what  these  peo- 
i8 


pie  said   about   Him.     Other  The 

men  made  the  blunder  of  say-  Years  av 

^,  r   4.U      NazaretK 

msf  He  was  the  son  of  the 

carpenter;  but  these  men,  by 
a  sudden  flash,  light  up  for  us 
the  eighteen  years  by  saying, 
*'  Is  not  this  the  carpenter?  " 
1  have  now  two  facts  con- 
cerning this  period.  I  have 
the  testimony  of  the  men  who 
knew  Him  best,  and  the  testi- 
mony of  God,  who  knew 
Him  better  than  they  did. 
Let  us  first  take  the  human 
declaration,  "  Is  not  this  the 
carpenter?  "  and  hold  it  in  the 
light  of  the  divine,  **  In  whom 
i  am  well  pleased";  and  then 
let  us  take  the  divine  revela- 
19 


The  tion,  "  Thou  art   My  beloved 
Hidden 
Years  at  Son,"  and  hold  it  in  the  light 

of  the    human,  "  Is   not  this 
the  carpenter?  " 

I  do  not  want  to  hide  the 
majesty  of  this  sweet  word 
the  "carpenter"  by  any  mul- 
tiplication of  words  of  mine. 
If  any  of  you  paint  pictures, 
have  you  not  sometimes  been 
annoyed  at  the  way  in  which 
men  have  framed  them? 
You  invite  your  friends'  at- 
tention to  a  work  of  art,  and 
they  exclaim,  *'  What  a  lovely 
frame!"  and  do  not  seem  to 
see  the  picture.  We  some- 
times frame  the  picture  of 
God's  words  in  like  manner. 
20 


Let  us   express   ourselves  so  The 

Hidden 
that  the  picture  is  seen  and  Years  at 

not  the  frame.  "Is  not  this  the  ^^^^*^ 
carpenter?"  For  the  greater 
part,  then,  of  the  life  of  Jesus, 
He  worked  with  His  own 
hands  for  His  own  living. 
That  brings  the  Son  of  God, 
in  living,  pulsating  life,  close 
to  every  man  who  works. 
There  is  a  beautiful  tradition, 
that  Joseph,  His  reputed 
father,  died  while  Jesus  was 
yet  a  child,  and  so  He  worked 
not  merely  to  earn  His  own 
living,  but  to  keep  the  little 
home  together  in  Nazareth, 
and  Mary  and  the  younger 
members  of  the  family  de- 
al 


The  pended  upon  His  toil.     That 
Hidden 
Years  at  is   a   beautiful    tradition.      It 

may  be  true,  but  I  do  not  press 
it.  But  I  do  press  this  upon 
you  above  everything  else, 
that  He  worked  for  His  liv- 
ing. Oh  that  we  could  get 
all  the  strength  and  comfort 
which  this  fact  is  calculated  to 
afford!  Business  men,  you 
who  have  been  at  work  all 
the  week  and  have  been  har- 
assed by  daily  labors  and  are 
weary  and  tired  and  seeking 
for  new  inspiration,  this 
Jesus,  whose  name  has  be- 
come a  name  of  sweetness 
and  love,  was  not  a  king 
upon  a  throne.  He  was  not 
aa 


for  the  greater  part  of  His  life  The 

Hidden 
a  teacher  with  the  thrill  and  Years  at 

^^azafettk 
excitement  of  public   life  to 

buoy  Him  up.  No;  the  long 
years  ran  on  and  He  was  doing 
what  some  of  you  speak  of  as 
"the  daily  round,  the  com- 
mon task."  The  man  Jesus 
rose  at  daybreak,  and,  picking 
up  His  tools,  made  yokes  and 
tables  in  order  that  He  might 
have  something  to  eat,  and 
that,  not  for  a  brief  period, 
but  for  eighteen  years.  He 
was  an  apprentice  boy,  a 
young  man  improving  His 
craft,  a  master  in  His  little 
shop  with  the  shavings  round 
Him  and  the  tools  about  Him. 
23 


The  That   is    the    human  picture. 
Hidden 
Years  at  But  that   human   picture   be- 

comes  supremely  precious  to 
me  as  the  light  of  the  divine 
falls  upon  it.  The  eighteen 
years  are  over,  the  tools  are 
laid  aside,  His  feet  will  no 
more  make  music  as  He 
walks  among  the  rustling 
shavings.  God  says,  "  I  am 
pleased."  It  may  have  meant 
that  God  was  pleased  with 
Jesus  because  in  those  years 
He  lived  in  the  realm  of  the 
spiritual  rather  than  the  ma- 
terial. I  believe  it  did  mean 
that,  but  I  am  not  going  to 
dwell  upon  it.  It  may  have 
meant  that  He  was  careful  to 
24 


think   of,  and   pray   for,  and  Tfcc 

Hidden 

teach  the  younger  members  of  Years  at 
His  household,  or  that  He  was 
regular  in  His  attendance  upon 
the  services  of  the  synagogue. 
I  think  it  did  mean  that,  be- 
cause I  read,  "  He  went  to  the 
synagogue,  as  was  His  cus- 
tom, on  the  Sabbath  day." 
But  I  want  to  know  what 
God  meant  about  the  shop, 
and  I  am  going  to  suggest  to 
you  two  things.  In  the  first 
place,— and  you  will  forgive 
this  way  of  putting  it,  because 
I  want  the  truth  of  it  to  abide 
upon  your  hearts,  and  if  the 
phrasing  be  not  elegant  I 
want    it   to    be    forceful,— it 

2C 


The  meant  that  Jesus   had   never 
Hidden 
Years  at  done  in  that  carpenter's  shop 

^^^  a  piece  of  work  such  as  we 
speak  of  in  the  closing  years 
of  the  nineteenth  century  as 
being  "shoddy  work."  'M 
am  pleased."  God  could  not 
have  been  pleased  with  car- 
pentry that  was  scamped  any 
more  than  with  blasphemous 
praise.  "I  am  pleased,"  and 
every  bit  of  work  has  on  it 
the  light  of  divine  truth. 
When  Jesus  sent  out  from 
that  carpenter's  shop  yokes 
that  the  farmers  would  use, 
they  were  so  fashioned  and 
finished  that  they  would  gall 
no     ox.     "Take     My    yoke 

36 


upon  you  "  gathers  force  and  The 

Hidden 
Strength    as     an    illustration  Years  at 

from  the  fidelity  of  the  car- 
penter's shop.  When  Jesus 
said,  "Take  My  yoke,"  it 
was  because  He  knew  that  it 
would  not  gall,  it  would  be 
finished  and  perfect.  Some- 
times we  have  overshadowed 
the  carpenter's  shop  with 
Calvary's  cross.  We  have  no 
right  to  do  it.  We  have 
come  to  forget  the  fidelity  of 
the  Son  of  God  in  the  little 
details  of  life  as  we  have 
gazed  upon  His  magnificent 
triumphs  in  the  places  of  pas- 
sion and  conflict.  In  the 
second  place,  the  divine  ap- 
27 


The  proval  meant   that  the   influ- 
Hidden 

Years  at  ence  of  the  hfe  had  been  pure 
Nazareth   ^^^    ^^.^^^    ^^^    ^^^^       You 

all  know  the  effect  of  influ- 
ence. What  sort  of  influence 
has  He  exerted?  Pure  and 
strong!  I  have  sat  some- 
times in  meditative  mood, 
and  thought  of  my  beloved 
Lord,  and  tried  to  carry  my- 
self back,  with  all  the  interests 
that  are  nearest  to  my  heart, 
into  that  land  and  that  time 
when  He  was  on  earth,  and  I 
have  thought,  if  I  could  just 
have  taken  my  boy  and  ap- 
prenticed him  to  that  carpen- 
ter, what  a  blessed  thing  it 
would  have  been.  I  don't 
28 


think  Jesus  would  have  given  The 

Hidden 
him    the   One    Hundred   and  Years  at 

Nineteenth  Psalm  to  learn  be- 
fore he  came  to  work  in  the 
morning,  or  have  been  talk- 
ing to  him  forevermore  about 
heaven  and  getting  ready  for 
it,  and  hell  and  shunning  it. 
But  he  would  have  lived  a 
bright,  strong,  glad  life  be- 
fore Him,  for  no  life  ever 
touched  the  life  of  the  Son  of 
God  but  was  the  brighter  and 
purer  and  stronger  for  the 
contact;  and  so,  when  the 
years  of  the  carpenter's  shop 
are  over,  God  sets  His  seal  of 
approval  upon  them,  first,  be- 
cause the  work  has  been  v/ell 
29 


The  done;  and,  secondly,  because 
Hidden 
Years  at  the  influence  of  the  life  has 

been  true  and  right  and  noble. 
Who  is  this  coming  up  out 
of  the  waters  of  baptism, 
upon  whom  the  dove  hovers 
and  settles,  and  concerning 
whom  heaven's  voice  is  heard 
to  speak?  God  marks  Him 
out  here  from  all  His  fellow- 
men.  "  Thou  art  My  beloved 
Son."  Not  ''Thou  art  a  son, 
a  child  of  Mine,"  but  "My 
Son."  And,  to  the  Hebrew 
mind,  that  links  Him  with  all 
the  prophecies  of  the  past. 
He  is  the  anointed  of  God. 
He  is  the  one  personage  who 
is  charged  with  the  great  mis- 
30 


sion  of  restoring  the  kingdom  The 

Hiddeti 
of  God.     God  marks  Him  in  Years  at 

,  , , .  Naxareth 

that  great  word  as  His  ap- 
pointed Messiah,  as  Shiloh,  as 
the  Daysman  from  on  high,  as 
the  Dayspring;  all  the  won- 
drous words  of  past  prophecy 
are  settled  upon  Him,  and 
God  marks  Him  as  the 
anointed  One  for  the  carrying 
out  of  the  great  scheme  of  re- 
demption for  the  human  race. 
And  now  He  is  standing  on 
the  banks  of  the  Jordan,  and 
we  look  upon  Him  for  the 
first  time  with  amazement 
and  astonishment,  and  won- 
der, if  this  be  the  beloved  Son 
of  God,  what  has  He  been 
3i 


The  doinp^,  where  has  He  been  in 
Hidden 

Years  at  the  years  preceding  this  pub- 
Nazareth  ,.  r     ^  X-       -i  r> 

he  manifestation  ?  Come 
back  again  to  the  question, 
"  Is  not  this  the  carpenter?  " 
and  the  wonder  is  presented 
in  a  new  vision,  from  a  new 
standpoint,  from  another  side. 
The  Son  of  God,  charged 
with  the  greatest  commission 
that  any  being  in  heaven  or 
earth  has  ever  had  to  bear, 
was  for  eighteen  years  at  work 
in  a  carpenter's  shop.  Now, 
we  hardly  see  the  wonder  of 
this  thing  until  we  look  more 
closely  at  it.  I  may  be  speak- 
ing to  some  young  man  upon 
whose  heart  is  lying  the  bur- 
32 


den    of    India,    the   need    of  The 

Hidden 

China;     he    is    travailing   in  Years  at 

^fazafetii 

spirit,  even  in  this  favored 
land,  for  the  dark  masses  of 
Africa;  he  is  touched  with 
the  sacrificial  passion  of  the 
Son  of  God  to  go  and  save 
somebody,  and  yet  God  has 
shut  him  up  here  at  home. 
He  has  to  live  and  care  for  a 
sick  one.  He  can't  go.  The 
fire  is  there,  but  the  door  is 
not  open.  The  passion  for 
men  consumes  him,  but  God 
shuts  him  out  from  service. 
"Now,  it  is  only  those  who 
know  something  of  what  that 
experience  is  who  can  under- 
stand the  strange  marvel  of 
33 


The  the  Son  of  God,  commissioned 
Hidden 
Years  at  to  do  the  work  that  precedes 

your  passion,  the  infinitely 
greater  work,  holding  in  its 
grasp  and  love  all  the  enter- 
prises for  the  uplifting  of 
man.  And  yet  with  that  pas- 
sion upon  Him,  with  the 
cross  ever  before  Him  and 
His  ultimate  triumph  in  front, 
every  morning  He  goes  to 
the  carpenter's  shop,  every 
day  He  does  work,  every 
night  goes  home  to  rest.  I 
tell  you  it  is  a  mystery  of 
mysteries  to  us  restless  spirits. 
What  does  it  mean  ?  How  is 
it  that  He,  the  beloved  of 
God,  the  anointed  of  God, 
34 


can  be— there  is  no  irreverence  The 

Hidden 

in  saying  it— content  ?    Now,   Years  at 

,  1  Nazareth 

the    answer   is    here.    Jesus 

lived  in  the  power  of  the  truth, 

which    we    are    so    slow   to 

!earn,  that  there  is  something 

infinitely  better  than  doing  a 

great  thing  for  God,  and  the 

infinitely  better  thing  is  to  be 

where  God  wants  us  to  be,  to 

do  what  God  wants  us  to  do, 

and   to   have    no   will    apart 

from     His— to    be    able     to 

say: 

I  worship  Thee,  sweet  will  of  God, 

And  all  Thy  ways  adore! 
And  every  day  1  live,  1  seem 

To  love  Thee  more  and  more. 

Jesus   understood   that.     The 

carpenter's  shop  was  the  will 

35 


The  of  God  for  Him,  and  therefore 
Hidden 
Years  at   He   abode   in  that  shop   and 

N^azareth     ,  ■  ,     ,  i    •      •  ,  i 

did  the  work  incidental  to  it. 

Now,  pray  do  not  misunder- 
stand me.  From  the  illustra- 
tion I  used  a  moment  ago, 
you  may  come  to  think  that  I 
intend  to  say  Jesus  did  it  as  a 
duty,  while  He  longed  for  the 
cross.  Nothing  of  the  kind. 
"I  delight  to  do  Thy  will, 
O  my  God."  Go  and  ask 
Him,  talk  with  Him  reverently 
across  the  distance  of  nine- 
teen hundred  years.  "  O 
Nazarene,  where  wouldst 
Thou  rather  be  to-day,  here 
among  this  work,  or  among 
the  crowd,  healing  and  teach- 


ing,  and  preaching  to  them  ?  "  The 

Hidden 
and   the   answer   would   be,  Yeaisat 

"  God's  will  for  Me  is  in  the  ^^^^^ 
carpenter's  shop,  and  there- 
fore that  is  the  place  of  My 
joy."  But  I  am  going  to  ask 
you  to  press  this  question  a  - 
little  further.  Was  this  a  ca- 
pricious matter,  this  will  of 
God  for  Jesus.^  Does  it  not 
look  hard  and  arbitrary  that 
God  should  have  put  that 
saintly  soul  to  such  common 
labor.?  Why  not  have  let 
Him  face  the  conflict  and  get 
the  victory,  and  hie  Him  back 
to  heaven?  There  was  a 
deep  necessity  in  the  whole 
arrangement.     Let  me  put  it 

^7 


The  superlatively,    and    say,    Cal- 
Hidden 
Years  at  vary's  cross  would  have  been 

nothing  but  the  tragic  ending 
of  a  mistaken  life,  if  it  had 
not  been  for  the  carpenter's 
shop!  In  that  carpenter's 
shop  He  fought  my  battles. 
My  hardest  fight  is  never 
fought  when  there  is  a  crowd 
to  applaud  or  oppose,  but 
when  I  am  alone.  Now,  that 
was  what  Jesus  was  doing  for 
eighteen  years.  There  was 
no  crowd  to  sing  "Hosanna  " ; 
no  other  crowd  to  cry  "  Cru- 
cify Him";  but  alone  He  did 
His  work  and  faced  all  the 
subtle  forms  of  temptation 
that    beset   humankind,    and 


one  by  one  He  put  His  con-  The 

Hidden 

quering  foot  upon  the  neck  of  Years  at 
them,  until  the  last  was  baf- 
fled and  beaten,  and  His  ene- 
mies were  palsied  by  the 
strong  stroke  of  His  pure 
right  arm.  That  is  what  He 
was  doing.  There  was  ne- 
cessity for  it,  and  because  of 
Nazareth's  shop  there  came 
Gethsemane's  garden  and  Cal- 
vary's cross,  and  so,  abiding 
in  the  will  of  God,  by  victory 
upon  victory,  He  won  His 
final  triumph,  and  so  opened 
the  kingdom  of  heaven  to  all 
believers. 

Now,    beloved,    from    this 
study  what  are  we  to  learn.? 
39 


The  I  can  only  write  off  for  you, 
Hidden 
Years  at  very  briefly,  one  or  two  les- 

Nazareth  ^^^^^  ,^^^  ^^^  ^^^^^  j^  .^  relative 

lesson.  I  never  come  back 
to  this  story  of  the  early 
years  of  Christ,  and  read  what 
these  men  of  Nazareth  said 
about  Him,  without  learning 
how  dangerous  a  thing  it  is 
to  pronounce  my  little  sen- 
tence upon  any  single  human 
life.  O  men  of  Nazareth, 
down  in  that  carpenter's  shop 
that  you  pass  and  repass, 
where  you  sometimes  pause 
and  look  in  and  see  Him  at 
His  work,  there  is  the  One 
who  spoke  and  it  was  done, 
who  put  His  compass  upon 
40 


the  deep,   who   fashioned  all  The 

^  Hidden 

things   by   the   word   of   His  Years  at 

^^azaretli 

power,  and  you  have  never 
seen  Him  and  never  known 
Him,  and  your  estimate  of 
Him  is  that  He  is  one  of  you 
—  only  a  carpenter.  Job's 
judges  and  Christ's  critics  are 
on  a  level,  and  they  are  on  a 
level  with  every  one  of  us 
who  tries  to  pass  his  sen- 
tences upon  his  fellow-men. 
If  people  ask  you  for  your  ex- 
planation of  the  mysterious 
circumstances  of  a  brother 
man,  tell  them  it  is  a  mystery 
of  God;  for  the  moment  you 
suggest  that  there  is  some- 
thing wrong  somewhere  you 
4t 


The  may  be   getting   into  the  re- 
Hidden 

Years  at  g^on  of  blasphemy.     Perhaps 

Nazareth  ^^,^^^  ^^^^  j^^^  ^^^^  broken  on 

the  wheel  by  the  Potter  for  a 
remaking.  "  If  the  Potter 
break  it  upon  the  wheel,  He 
shall  remake  it";  and  God's 
fairest,  highest  place  of  ser- 
vice in  the  land  that  lies  be- 
yond will  be  filled  by  the  men 
and  women  who  have  been 
broken  upon  the  wheel  on 
earth.  Do  not  let  us  forget 
that,  and  if  we  cannot  under- 
stand what  God  is  doing  with 
that  woman  whose  heart  is 
crushed  and  broken  with 
overwhelming  sorrow,  let  us 
be  reverently  silent,  lest  we 
42 


help  the  men  who  drive  the  The 

^  Hidden 

nails,    and   break   the   Lord's  Years  at 

Nazareth 
own  heart. 

But  I  gather  not  only  this 
relative  lesson;  there  are  per- 
sonal   lessons.     The    first    is 
this:    the    phrase    "common 
task"  should  be  struck  out  of 
every   life.    Jesus   taught   us 
that  all  toil  is  holy  if  the  toiler 
be  holy.     Not  for  the  sake  of 
controversy,  but  as  a  protest 
against  the  misconception  of 
human  life,  I  tell  you  that  no 
man  has  any  right,  simply  be- 
cause he  preaches  or  performs 
certain  functions,  to  speak  of 
himself  as   a   man   in  "  holy 
orders."    The  man  who  goes 
43 


The  out  to  work  to-morrow  morn- 
Hidden 
Years  at  ing  with  his  bag  on  his  back 

and  his  tools  in  it,  if  he  be  a 
holy  man,  has  claims  to  that 
distinction ;  and  if  that  man  go 
down  into  the  carpenter's 
shop  and  saw  a  piece  of  tim- 
ber, the  saw  is  a  vessel  of  the 
sanctuary  of  God,  if  the  man 
is  a  priest  who  uses  it.  All 
service  is  sacred  service.  I 
want  you  to  carry  this 
thought  of  the  working  Christ 
into  all  the  days  of  the  com- 
ing week,  behind  the  counter 
and  in  the  office,  and,  beloved 
sisters,  if  I  may  say  so,  in  the 
home.  Remember      that 

George    Herbert    had   caught 
44 


the  very  spirit  of  this  lovely  The 

Hidden 

thought  when  he  sang  of  the  Years  at 
possibility  of  sweeping  a 
room  and  "  making  that  and 
the  action  fine."  Oh,  if  we 
could  but  get  the  Christian 
church,  to  say  nothing  of  the 
outside  world,  free  from  the 
stupid  and  false  ideas  that  this 
kind  of  work  is  honorable, 
and  that  is  not,  what  a  long 
way  we  should  be  on  the  road 
to  the  millennium!  If  every 
business  man  wrote  his  letters 
as  though  Jesus  would  have 
to  look  over  them,  what 
lovely  letters  we  should  have! 
I  do  not  know  that  they 
would  have  tracts  in  them,— 
45 


The  that   is    not   my    point,— but 
Hidden 
Years  at  they  would  be   true,  robust, 

honest  letters.  O  you  busi- 
ness men,  won't  you  do  your 
business  for  Christ,  realizing 
that  the  work  you  do  may  be 
as  sacred  as  my  work?  Sis- 
ters, won't  you  take  the  home 
and  make  it  a  holy  place  for 
the  shining  of  the  Shechinah? 
If  Christ  lived  the  larger  part 
of  His  life  working,  then  our 
work  is  smitten  through  and 
through  and  lit  with  a  new 
beauty,  and  we  write  over  it, 
"  Part  of  God's  work  for  up- 
lifting man." 

I  learn  this  lesson  also,  that 
no  man  is  fit  for  the  great 
46 


places  of  service  who  has  not  T^^ 
fitted   himself   by  fidelity  in   Years  at 
obscurity.      You   want,    you 
tell  me,  to  preach  the  gospel 
in  China.     Are  you  living  it  at 
home?     God  does  not  want 
men  or  women  to  preach  His 
gospel   anywhere   who  have 
not   made    it   shine    in   their 
own   homes.     I  do  not  ask, 
*'  Can  you  do  the  great  work 
that  hangs  upon  your  hearts?  " 
but,  "  Are  you  doing  the  pres- 
ent  work   faithfully?"      Are 
you  an   Endeavorer,  do  you 
belong  to  the  missionary  so- 
ciety,   that    branch    or    this 
branch  of  the  church,  and  are 
you  so  anxious  to  get  to  the 
47 


The  meetings  that  you  rob  your 
(lidden 
Years  at  master  of  even  five  minutes 

of  his  time?  Christ  doesn't 
count  the  service,  but  the  five 
minutes  you  have  stolen. 
What  we  want  is  to  feel  that 
if  we  are  to  do  a  big  thing  in 
the  public  service,  we  must  be 
through  and  through  true  in 
the  small  things  of  life.  The 
.  carpenter's  shop  made  Cal- 
vary not  a  battle-field  merely, 
but  a  day  of  triumph  that  lit 
heaven  and  earth  with  hope; 
and  if  you  and  I  would  tri- 
umph when  our  Calvary 
comes,  we  must  triumph  in 
the  little  things  of  the  com- 
mon hours. 

48 


Date  Due 

- 

'r.~       '■■     ...      . 

',1 

9 

"'''^■^'^-     -- 

9^ 

f) 

